I figured I'm make my own thread. :
I just drained the battery for the first time since picking up my updated Vectrix. Ran her until the red battery light turned on. Currently I am pleased. I was able to accelerate up hills with decent amount of acceleration (enough not to annoy the people behind you). The last bar seemed to last far longer then bars 4-2, but I was staying closer to home on the last bar. When the light turned on the bike estimated that I had 3km left or 2 miles... I think the new firmware is less likely to result in you getting in trouble when the battery is low. On the older firmware I drove the bike until it would barely go 3mph, basically I went from 3 bars to 1 with a red light. I didn't trust the bottom of the gauge after that... At present I feel like I can trust the low end of the gauge again.
The only change that is weird is the change in the horn behavior. The quick beep function seems to be gone but the hold and big beep feature is still there... maybe this is a toggle. I also couldn't figure out how to turn off my headlight. I held the high-beam button for a while but didn't get a notification beep. I haven't tried testing the blinker warning yet.
I'm planning on taking an long drive tomorrow to drain the batter all the way again.
Another thing that is sorta strange is that the bike doesn't have the gauges on while it's charging. I hear the fan and know that it's charging (it's been about 3 hours now. I'm sorta disappointed, I liked having the gauges on while the bike charges because I could see it's charge level from inside my house.
Anyone know if this is normal with the new firmware? Or are these all items that you can toggle?
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Weird... the bike is now charging. I guess the cooling fan has been on for some time making the humming sound. The bike gauges are now on and it seems to be charging. I am too far to actually read what state of charging it's in. It's rather chilly (50's) today so I am surprised that the bike would have wanted 2-3 hours to cool down before charging.
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Plugged the bike in at 4:15 PM... noticed charging start around ~7pm. I just walked outside and the bike stopped charging at 12:55 AM exactly.
I don't have the new firmware yet, but from what I gathered, the pre-charge cooling period is settable.
I am on Oct2008 Firmware. The headlights can be switched off when at stand still. I do it immediately after I switched on the bike. activate the pass switch (the blue light goes on) and keep it pushed. After a short while you hear a beep. Continue pushing the pass swicth until you hear a second beep. Now release the pass switch and you will see the headlights are off. You cant do this while riding and may only be able doing it before starting to move the bike.
The indicator beep is still there it just takes longer until the beep is triggered. Personally I think it takes a bit too long but dont forget, there are bikes out there that do not have the feature at all. By the way, the indicator beep goes off as soon you brake or stop. Nice idea.
Your charging behavious sounds fine.
Have fun riding your Vectrix!
As you've already noticed, the new software won't let the charging begin until the fans have cooled the battery pack to an acceptable charging level. It simply behaves differently than it used to, so forget what you are used to and don't try comparing the before and after!!
I wasted a 450 mile round trip to my dealer thinking I had lost a fan, but the new software won't run all fans simultaneously. It runs them individually as needed. Now I gotta put 450 more miles on her before I can start earning my green points again! HAHA!! :-)
If you use a circuit timer (other than the new built in optional one that your new software has) be sure to give it an all night duration, as your bike will now occasionally want to do a long "Equalizing" charge, which will take much longer than the normal 3 to 4 hours.
The annoying part is the delay. Basically, I can't make trips anymore that require a little bit of recharging before the return trip home.
For instance... right now I want to drive to my office. ~25 miles with freeway. The trip usually leaves about half charge left. Either one bar over half or exactly half the bars missing (on the old firmware). In the past I could just drive to work, plug-in and just 1 hour and head home if need be. Now I can't because I need to stay at the office for ~1-3 hours because the bike hasn't started charging. So if I know that I just have a quick back and forth errand I basically need to use my card because I don't want to get stuck at the office for 3 hours hoping that the batteries will finish cooling. The new firmware has basically ruined one of the best features in the bike.
While I appreciate that the changes are for the benefit of the hardware, these new changes really ruin the bike for users like myself. If you can't make quick trips with intermittent charging in between stops then you also ruined the bike as a fleet vehicle for Police and other operations. The 1 hour/80% charge was key to making the bike viable. The new (unknown) 1-2 hour cool-down then charge for an hour is horrible because it's not a finite amount of time that you can rely on. There is a huge "unknown" cool down time now. If it take 2 hours to cool down the bike in the shade of a 48 degree day in Seattle then how long will summer cool down take when it's 90 in the evening? Will my bike just be charging as the sun comes up the next morning?
Truthfully, this firmware has totally gimped the bike. I almost need an iPhone App now that tells me if I should bother walking from my bike to the parking space. To me this all means that a NiMH batteries are totally worthless for a EV vehicle because they can't handle more frequent small charges. If this is the case then your better off using an expensive nanophosphate battery that give you much greater capacity at the expense of a single painful daily charge.
Anyone know if these data for cooling and charging are available on the CAN bus? I am assuming that the charging system is totally separate at present.
Do I remember correctly that there is a way to activate immediate charging by pulling one of the brake levers whilst turning the key to "OFF"?
This information may be used entirely at your own risk.
There is always a way if there is no other way!
That would be awesome and make my rant pointless.
A search of Visforvoltage returned this: The instruction transcript, from Hermes!
http://visforvoltage.org/forum/5185-anyone-have-latest-firmware#comment-31149
I don't know what exactly can be done, I still have the old software running in the Vectux and will hang on to it for now!
I would try out if I could set a zero min or 15min delay to get around the problem. The cooling before charging is not so important when the battery is empty, anyway, because the battery does not heat up during the initial part of charging.
This information may be used entirely at your own risk.
There is always a way if there is no other way!
On the October firmware update, to charge immediatly then just plug the scooter into the mains. If prior to charging, the battery temp is greater than 22c, then you could activate a cooling cycle by holding left or right brake and turning off key. Cooling fans will shut down when battery reaches 22c but it will still wait out the alloted time delay, at that point you can turn the power off then back on again and it will start charging.
You may be one of the first people with a newer version of the software which insists on a cooling cycle regardless, if that is the case I will not be getting that update!
It may also be that if the battery is greater than 22c then firmware will activate cooling cycle even if you just plug it in. I've not experianced this as the weather is still mild in UK. You should still be able, once cooling fans have shut down, turn power off and then back on, and it should start charging.
That's how you activate the DELAY.
To charge without a delay, you simply turn the switch off without holding either lever.
For delay charging, the LEFT lever is a user settable timer, and the right lever is a default 30 minute delay. Turning the key off neither lever pulled is a no-delay default.
However, if your battery is hot, I'm not sure that the charger will instantly start charging. Mine will, but my temps are still mild enough that any kind of safety delay may not be kicking in yet.
While I can see the need for instant "quickie" charges, I can also appreciate the fact that in some circumstances (hot battery) this practice can KILL the longevity of our already unknown battery life. Perhaps this change does leave a few owners coming up short on what they require from the Vectrix, but it was never intended as a long range machine in the first place.
I think if Vectrix had initially labeled the bike as a 30 Mile range bike, they might not have sold quite as many bikes, but they wouldn't have angry customers that are getting less range than they expected. They simply overhyped the advertising. Not good in the long run.
I need to add my experiences as I believe Infinate is right.
I have had all "3" firmwares on my bike, the original firmware, the october firmware, then back to the original again after a main controller board replacement, then the newest.
On the original firmware (Mr Miks), everything is as said.
With the October firmware originally, the delay was indeed activated by left (programmed) or right (preprogrammed) brake. If you just turned the bike off, then plugged in, off it went.
I have now had the new Feb firmware for 3 charges, this evening, the bike has had a hard run in warm conditions. Usually when I plug the bike in (I never set or use the delay option), it charges straight away. Tonight, it automatically started blowing the fans and not doing anything, and the air coming out was quite warm. So I think the new new firmware has a setting which will not start the charging process and force a delay if the battery is too warm to begin with.
Just my opinion based on experience - I had tested the precharge delay on the october firmware for the few months i had it, so I know I did not accidentlly set it.
Cheers
Undead.
About a week has passed and I think that I am actually okay with the firmware. The weather is still cool but not chilly. (60-70 degrees F) is my average temp. Honestly, it's really hard to tell that anything is different on the bike right now. For whatever reason the "chirp" returned and the bike seems to be running very well. The range is more modest but much more accurate.
Charging isn't as bad as I feared. Typically there is a 30 minute or less cool-down that starts before the bike actually starts charging. So, 1.5 hours for a 80% charge is roughly what I am experiencing. We'll see how that changes in the summer, but I can say that it's not as bad as I thought.
In hind sight I think the extreme delay in charging (and my over reaction) was due to the extreme discharge. I believe that a complete discharge of the batteries caused them to become much hotter then they normally do when doing a more typical 50% discharge.
Riding the Vectrix around is still a joy. My commute to work feel exactly the same. I can't tell any difference in power. The other day I was zipping on the highway at 60MPH, against the wind, and up a hill and the Vectrix seemed powerful as ever. I was wondering if I was damaging the main fuse and the current pull on the batteries but performance seemed great.
In the evening it's much easier to watch what the bike is doing. Over all the bike seems to just cool down for a bit. The temperature is usually around 28C when I get home (after the faster highway drive). 30 or so minutes of cooling then charging.
Over all I would give the new firmware a thumbs up at this point. I do really like the better range estimates but the bike is still pretty optimistic.
At present my drive is 14.3 miles to work with about 1/5 on a 50 MPH and 2/5 on hilly 60 MPH. The rest is normal stop and go >35 MPH city traffic with small hills. Typically I have about 3bars over half when I arrive at work. The return trips is a little faster in the beginning plus the 5 floor climb out of my parking garage. ~40 MPH to the highway and then about 10 Miles as fast as the bike will go ending in city traffic >35 MPH. Total return trip is 17.4 miles. The route home will average at half of the bar being used, sometime one bar or so over half a full charge remains. 31.7 Miles round trip ability doesn't sound very good but 50% if not more of my commute is at full speed. From what I have read the Tesla is even guilty at rounding up it's trip figures. All and all I am pleased and the savings are great.